For all its uncertainty, the 2002 Aggie offense certainly will be experienced. But R.C. Slocum hadn’t planned it that way when the 2001 season started. After all, he had no idea, nor desires, to go to a bowl game with the likes of such freshmen as Terrence Murphy, Quentin Holman, Jami Hightower, Thomas Carriger, Derek Farmer, Keith Joseph and Haven Massey all listed on his two-deep – and four of them starting as true freshmen, less than a semester removed from the Friday night lights of high school football.

"We get the benefit of that now," Slocum said as he prepared for his 30th A&M spring practice. "Injuries forced us to play some young guys."

The Aggies’ starting offense against TCU in the Gallery Furniture.com Bowl had only a slight resemblance to the one that started just 3 1/2 months earlier against McNeese State. The rash of injuries started early and continued into December, and only now as spring football for 2002 begins can the injury bug be called a delayed blessing in disguise.

A quick glance at that bowl game two-deep chart shows A&M will cheer the return of 10 of 11 starters and 11 of 12 back-ups. All-American center Seth McKinney and second team wideout Mickey Jones are gone, but that leaves the core of what turned out to be an effective offense by season’s end.

Tailback Derek Farmer will look to run behind new starting center Geoff Hangartner (66) in 2002.

"There’s a lot of young kids who played a lot of football last year," said running backs coach Ken Rucker. "There is a sense of urgency to go out and pick up where we finished last year. I thought we ended strong with the bowl game, and now, we just need to build on that from a hunger standpoint."

There’s no hiding the offensive numbers from last year. In the Big 12, A&M finished 11th in total offense (305.7 yards per game), 10th in scoring (20.0), 11th in first downs (16 per game), 11th in third-down conversions (30.3 percent), 8th in passing efficiency and 8th in rushing yards (114 per game). They weren’t the kind of rankings that pleased Slocum, not to mention the more than 82,000 fans that showed up for A&M’s last five home games.

Spring should bring a solid group of returners back at every position except tight end, where true freshman Thomas Carriger was called on to fill in for the injured Michael de la Torre.

"We are still awfully thin there," Slocum said. "That’s the only problem going into spring – not enough tight ends to work with. We won’t be able to really address that until the summer."

Rucker relishes the thought of returning runners with some mileage on them.

"We didn’t know what we were getting in Derek Farmer last year, plus we went into the season without a fullback and came out with a good one in Joe Weber," Rucker added. "He and Stacy Jones really complemented each other toward the end of the season."

Farmer, Keith Joseph and Oschlor Flemming combined for 259 carries last year, and Rucker says that’s the kind of experience that will pay big dividends in the fall.

"There will be more consistency now that they’ve played together," Rucker said. "We feel good about our running game getting better. Those guys have been getting stronger and faster in the offseason program."

The most heralded return will be wide receiver Bethel Johnson, who received an extra year after having his spleen removed following a bruise suffered against Wyoming in A&M’s second game of the season. Johnson caught eight passes in two games, including six in his final game. As a sophomore, he caught 19 balls for an average of 19 yards per catch. At full strength, Johnson will anchor possibly the strongest receiving unit in A&M history.

Without Johnson, returners Murphy, Jamaar Taylor, Dwain Goynes and Greg Porter combined to catch 122 balls last year.

Geoff Hangartner

Porter, who won’t participate in spring drills while playing pro baseball, could be a bonus in the summer if he decides to return to school for his senior season. He missed six games with a broken leg before returning to play sparingly against Texas and TCU last year.

Spring drills will mark the coming out of a handful of redshirt freshmen who spent last season learning on the scout teams. Wideouts John Roberson, Jesse Woods and Bryant Singleton, offensive linemen Dominique Steamer, Holman and Cole Smith, and quarterback Jason Carter all will compete for playing time. Carter is perhaps the most anticipated of that group. The Caldwell scrambler could combine with Dustin Long to make the spring quarterback race with senior Mark Farris an interesting one.

Farris put an end to speculation that, at age 27, he might bypass his senior season when he announced soon after the bowl win that he would return.

"Sure every position is the same," said Rucker, "but the good news is that Mark Farris showed that he wanted to be back and that he wants to improve."

Slocum expects a spirited battle for the quarterback job, but he reiterates his confidence in Farris.

"A lot of things that happened last year were not all on Mark," Slocum said. "When you lose your best receiver early, and then your next best receiver is lost for the year, then lose your first two tight ends, things will usually go downhill from there. You’re playing with young guys, and normally the quarterback takes the brunt of that. But I thought Dustin Long made some strides last year, and we haven’t had a chance to see much of Jason Carter because he’s been on the scout team. I think it will be a good competition."

The combination of veteran players and new faces has Rucker sky-high about the potential for the Aggie offense.

"If we get as much production out of the kids that come in this spring and this summer as we got out of the young kids last year, we’ll be right on top of the game," he said.

But Aggie fans tend to be bottom-line types… so will the A&M offense produce the kind of excitement they’ve yearned for the last several years?

"Definitely," added Rucker. "I think they saw it at the end of last season. When you get a few people healthy and they work in a unified way, a lot of improvement shows ups. From that standpoint, it will be an exciting season."